At
the national level, the
National Biodiversity Strategy 2006-2016, adopted in October 2006,
was developed as a direct response to Article 6 of the Convention on
Biological Diversity. It is the first document on biodiversity that
is applicable both at federal and regional levels.

The
strategy spells out a range of priority objectives to anticipate,
prevent and reduce the causes of biodiversity loss in Belgium. It
also aims to (i) implement the Convention on Biodiversity, (ii) reach
the 2010 target set out by the EU (halt the loss of biodiversity in
Europe by 2010) and (iii) provide an integrated national response to
the numerous treaties and agreements on biodiversity to which Belgium
is a party.

In
November 2009, the federal government adopted the Federal Plan for
the Sectoral Integration of Biodiversity. This plan is one of the
government contributions to the 2010 International Year of
Biodiversity and to the implementation of Belgium’s National
Biodiversity Strategy 2006-2016.

The
plan focuses on four key sectors at the federal level: economy,
development cooperation, science policy and transport. The objective
is to better integrate biodiversity concerns in the activities of
these sectors. This sectoral integration of biodiversity should not
be restricted to a limited number of sectors, hence this plan is to
be seen as a first step in this approach.

An
overall total surface area
for protected areas (PAs) cannot be given, since surfaces of PAs of
several types overlap, wholly or partially.

The
total Natura 2000 surface
area in the terrestrial zone comes to 12.6 % of Belgium. In the
marine zone about 12 % of the Belgian territorial sea and its
exclusive economic zone is designated as Natura 2000.

The
demarcation of the protected areas, which are summarised in Table 2,
is embedded in regional policies aimed at countering the loss of
biodiversity (except for the federal marine protected areas). Hence
the response to biodiversity loss is described on a regional level
below.

Brussels-Capital

Flanders

Wallonia

Federal
marine

Belgium

Number

Area
(ha)

Number

Area
(ha)

Number

Area
(ha)

Number

Area
(ha)

Number

Area(ha)

Total surface area

16 140

1 352 200

1 684 400

346 200

3 052 800

Nature
reserves

public
nature reserves

13

117

368

14 546

147

7
058

1

670

406

21 083

private
nature reserves

-

-

554

19 302

135

2 261

-

-

767

20 432

Natura
2000

3

2 432

62

166 187

240

220 945

5

42 305

310

428 908

Forest
reserves

2

112

47

2 546

13

610

-

-

61

4 556

Forest
special protection areas

4

587

Wetlands
of biological interest

-

-

-

-

51

1 091

-

-

49

1 045

Caves

-

-

-

-

70

-

-

-

63

-

Natural
parcs

-

-

1

5 700

9

306 971

-

-

10

312 167

Ramsar
and other wetlands

-

-

4

5 572

4

38 528

1

1900

9

4 600

Dune
Protection Act: protected dunes

-

-

135

1 105

-

-

-

-

±117

1 088

Table
2: Overview of the numbers and surface area of various types of
protected areas (Source:
National Focal Point of Belgium for the Convention on Biological
Diversity (2009), p96 – revised according to recent changes)

Designated
protected areas

In
Belgium there are
no special targets requiring protected areas to cover a minimum
percentage of the ecological regions. However, the EU Habitats
Directive and Birds Directive include qualitative targets for the
designation of protected areas for the listed endangered species and
habitats in Belgium.